In society, people strive to look and be how the media presents the images of how people should be. We as human beings are constantly shaping and being shaped by the world around us. In society, there are norms and expectations that people are expected to follow and live upon by. As trying to achieve the ideal self image, people sometimes behave in self destructive behavior. As a result people are involved in eating disorder situations that create a social issue in our society.

I believe that media is the greatest influence on the issue of eating disorders. Unfortunately no one can stop the media. Media takes advantage of the low self-confidence of both men and women that they have gained from seeing so many unrealistic ideal images presented in the media. The problem is that many people are attempting to achieve the ideal figure that society has set. They don’t realize that society’s ideal body image unachievable and unrealistic. People are under a lot of pressure to be thin because they feel that’s the only way they would be accepted, this leads to the result of them staving themselves, vomiting, and unhealthy dieting, which causes the eating disorder.

To apply the symbolic interactionism theory to eating disorders, it is important to acknowledge the role of the individual and how their interactions with other individuals influence them to reach the thinness ideal. The pressures for people of obtaining a great body image and of looking thin come greatly from interactions with other individuals. As humans constantly interact with other individuals and interpret their behavior, society is constantly changing which causes the individual also to change its self- concept. The ideal figure today is completely different of what it used to be a few decades ago for the reason that society keeps changing the appearance of and individual and the way they are presented in the media.

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...SymbolicInteractionismSymbolicinteractionism is the way we learn to interpret and give meaning to the world through our interactions with others (LaRossa &amp; Reitzes, 1993). Herbert Blumer was credited with the term “symbolicinteractionism” in 1937. Blumer was a follower of George H. Mead, and was influenced by John Dewey. Dewey insisted that human beings are best understood in relation to their environment (The Society for More Creative Speech, 1996). With this as his approach, Herbert Blumer defined symbolicinteractionism as a study of human group life and conduct. Blumer identified three core principles of symbolicinteractionism. These principles are meaning, language, and thought. Blumer further introduces six “root images” that show how symbolic interaction views human society and conduct (Blumer 1969). Together these core principles and root images lead to the conclusions about the creation of a person’s self and socialization into a larger community.
The first core principle is meaning, the construction of social reality. It states that people act towards others and objects based upon the meanings that they have given to those people or things. Whatever the object is, people name it and create a universal meaning for it. It all depends on where you are at that time (Fontana, 1994). If...

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Symbolicinteractionism is a sociological viewpoint that has shaped various matters of the practice as we know it today. Social interactionism particular focus is based on how individuals learn to interpret and also gives meaning to the world through interaction with others. The term “symbolicinteractionism” is remotely used to distinguish the study of human life and conduct. It has been argued by sociologist that this has a micro approach and doesn’t stipulate any macro substance or in other words this philosophy concentrates more on the individual than society as a whole which raised controversy over time. This practice has been heavily influenced by George Herbert Mead George H. Mead, American philosopher and social theorist, was one of the most prolific and profound figures in classical American pragmatism. Mead is considered to be the father of symbolicinteractionism in sociology even though he never released a monograph until after his death which was published by the assemblage of his students from various notes and unrevealed documents.
Mead was widely known for his work on the nature of self and inter-subjectivity which is based on the vital disputation that the self is a social nascent. The concept of social self delicately entails that individuals are the cause of social interaction and not by rational or natal pre-requirements of that...

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In this final paper I will be discussing SymbolicInteractionism Theory. First I will discuss the theory itself, and the basic tenants that were created by George Herbert Mead, and then continue on to further explain his theory by addressing relevant literature on the theory itself. Next, I will be discussing how the theory is utilized within communication, followed by a real life application of this specific theory. Then, ending with a general final importance of communication theory.
Symbolicinteractionism theory is an socio-cultural, interpretive theory established by George Herbert Mead. “Symbolicinteractionism isn’t just talk. The term refers to the language and gestures a person uses in anticipation of the way others will respond” (Griffin, 2012, p. 54). There are three core principles of symbolicinteractionism, which include meaning, language, and thinking. “Meaning is central to human behavior in the sense that humans act toward people and things based on the meaning that they have attributed to those people or things” (Smit, 2008, p. 3). It is the interpretation of a response that counts, which is negotiated through the use of language. Meaning arises from the social interaction that people have with one another. Without language, we would not be able to interact and understand concepts that other...

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Should we associate the abandonment of ‘self’ with symbolicinteractionism? Do you feel the need to ‘change your stripes’ to fit in with society?
‘An individual is an abstraction unknown to experience, and so likewise is society when regarded as something apart from individuals.... Society and individuals do not denote separable phenomena, but are simply collective and distributive aspects of the same thing…’ (Thomas Francis O'Dea)
In this aspect of his theory, Charles Horton Cooley, a symbolic interactionist, concluded that our sense of ’self’ develops from interactions with others. Cooley described this process as the looking -glass self. The looking- glass self consists of three principle elements. We first imagine how we appear to those around us. We may feel that others see us as monotonous or quiet. Therefore, we try to interpret the reactions of others when we are around them to confirm if what we think is true. If others seem to avoid you or go out of their way to make sure you don‘t see them at all, your typical assumption would be that they have seen or heard something to turn them off from wanting to be an acquaintance of yours .
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...Blumer and symbolicinteractionism: He propos es 3 fundamental premises. (1) “Human beings act as toward things on the basis of the meanings which theses things have for them”. Meanings are not intrinsically in things in the world; they have to be defined before they have any human reality. This applies to other human beings, social organizations, to ideals, as well as physical objects themselves. Everything that people act upon or that has an impact upon them must go through the process of subjective meaning. (2)”The meaning of a thing for a person grows out of the ways in which other persons act toward the person with regard to the thing” Meaning is not merely individual and subjective, but social. (3) “The use of meanings by the actor occurs through a process of interpretation”. Meanings are handled flexibly as actions are worked out. The social communication which constitutes meaning is itself an interpretive process, as individuals imaginatively take the role of the other to work out of way of dealing with each other. People are not merely pushed around by psychological or social conditions. Each individual has to interpret whatever factors there are in the situation, to give them a meaning, to work out a course of action in regard to them. Society, roles, social institutions, or values should not be reified, as if they were objective things or autonomous forces impinging on the individual. Society exists only in action; it is whatever...